...the film is not quite all it pretends to be with its dour ending. But it does provide along the way enough humor and enough clear perceptions about growing up to make the journey worthwhile.
Along the course of the trios' road trip, they encounter a series of tragic occurrences, indicating how truly accidental and fragile life can be. Other, similar connections are made between life and its attendant difficulties as the boys and the woman head in a direction they would have never suspected when they started out. "Life is like the surf," says Luisa, who seems to be as full of aphorisms as Forrest Gump's mother, "so give yourself away like the sea."
Video:
The picture quality here fairly defines the word "ordinary." Of course, by DVD standards "ordinary" is still pretty good. The picture size is a 1.74:1 ratio, anamorphic widescreen (although 1.74:1 is hardly what anyone these days calls "widescreen," as it is the most common screen dimension). The image is sometimes a bit fuzzy and dark, even in brightly lit indoor areas. This is odd because at times the image is perfectly focused and clear. Go figure. Colors are fairly neutral and realistic, especially all-important facial tones, but there is some minor grain and there are a few moiré and halo effects; nothing of great concern.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is also pretty ordinary, most often producing a narrow front-channel stereo field, with little rear-channel activity except some expected musical ambiance. The lack of much surround information aside, the audio is quite easy on the ears, the front-channel stereo imaging having a nice three-dimensional quality to it.
Extras:
There are a few useful and entertaining bonus features included that should be pursued if you buy or even rent the disc. The first is the almost mandatory audio commentary, this one with cast members Bernal, Luna, and Andres Almeida, as far as I could tell entirely in Spanish, with no subtitles. The second is a twelve-minute short film by Carlos Cuaron, "Me La Debes," a frisky little sex play. The third is a set of three deleted scenes, with or without English subtitles. The fourth is a twenty-two minute, making-of featurette that takes the viewer behind the scenes for the location shooting. Then, there are a generous thirty-two scene selections, a widescreen theatrical trailer, and a TV spot. Spanish is the only spoken language included, but there are English subtitles available for the movie, if not for the cast commentary.
Parting Thoughts:
"Y Tu Mama Tambien," although filled with sex and vulgarity, is a sweet comedy with serious intent, unlike, say, "American Pie," whose sweet characters were used for cheap giggles. The film may promise more than it can deliver, and it never delves very deeply into the adolescent psyche, but it does provide almost two hours of solid enjoyment, laughter, and heartbreak. Just don't ask your Great Aunt Martha to sit in on this one; for a mainstream film, the unrated edition is wildly erotic and requires an open mind about profanity, nudity, and sex, or at least a modern sensibility toward these subjects, to be enjoyed.
As a footnote, director Cuaron is currently slated to take over the directorial duties for the third Harry Potter adventure, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," 2004. I wonder if we'll be seeing here the beginning of a more discerning and meaningful children's story. Only time will tell.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]10616[/release]